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If passed, life without the possibility of parole would be the most severe sentence in the state.

Supporters of repeal argue that the death penalty is costly, error-prone, racially biased and a poor deterrent of crime.

Jubilant: Anti-death penalty advocates Sylvester Schieber, left, his wife, Vicki, center, Kirk Bloodsworth, the first American sentenced to death row who was exonerated by DNA

A SECOND CHANCE AT FREEDOM: KIRK NOBLE BLOODSWORTH

The man pictured in today's jubilant scenes from the Maryland state capitol is that of 53-year-old Kirk Noble Bloodsworth. He was the first American sentenced to death row who was exonerated by DNA fingerprinting.

An honorably discharged former Marine and Maryland resident, Bloodsworth was convicted in 1985 of sexual assault, rape, and first-degree premeditated murder for the 1984 rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in Rosedale, Maryland.

Even though five eyewitnesses had placed him with the victim, he continued to maintain his innocence throughout his trial and subsequent incarceration.

In 1992, while in jail, Bloodsworth read an account of how DNA fingerprinting had led to the conviction of Colin Pitchfork in the killings of Dawn Ashworth and Lynda Mann; hoping to prove his innocence, he pushed to have the evidence against him tested by the then-novel method.

Initially, the available evidence in the case — traces of semen in the victim's underwear — was thought to have been destroyed; however, when eventually located (in a paper bag in the judge's chambers), testing proved that the semen did not match Bloodsworth's DNA profile.

In 1993, Bloodsworth was released; by that time, he had spent almost nine years in prison, two of them on death row. Though released from prison, Bloodsworth was not formally exonerated until 2003 when prisoner DNA evidence added to state and federal databases identified the real killer: Kimberly Shay Ruffner.

Opponents say it is a necessary tool to punish lawbreakers who commit the most egregious crimes.

Maryland
has five men on death row. The measure would not apply to them
retroactively, but the legislation makes clear that the governor can
commute their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of
parole.

The state's last execution took place in 2005, during the administration of Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich.

He
resumed executions after a moratorium had been in place pending a 2003
University of Maryland study, which found significant racial and
geographic disparity in how the death penalty was carried out.

Capital punishment was put on hold in
Maryland after a December 2006 ruling by Maryland's highest court that
the state's lethal injection protocols weren't properly approved by a
legislative committee.

The committee, whose co-chairs oppose capital punishment, has yet to sign off on protocols.

O'Malley, a Catholic, expressed support for repeal legislation in 2007, but it stalled in a Senate committee

Maryland has a large Catholic population, and the church opposes the death penalty.

In 2008, lawmakers created a commission to study capital punishment after repeal efforts failed again.

The panel recommended a ban later that year, citing racial and jurisdictional disparities in how the death penalty is applied.

In 2009, lawmakers tightened the law
to reduce the chances of an innocent person being sent to death row by
restricting capital punishment to murder cases with biological evidence
such as DNA, videotaped evidence of a murder or a videotaped confession.

18th State to abolish: Maryland will become the sixth state in as many years to replace capital punishment with life in prison without parole.

According
to the Maryland Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services
website, Maryland has executed only five inmates since 1976.

In contrast, neighboring Virginia has executed 110 inmates since the U.S. Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1976.

However,
Virginia's death row population has dwindled to eight from a peak of 57
in 1995, in part because fewer death sentences are being handed down in
the state amid an increased acceptance of life without parole as a
reasonable alternative.

Death penalty: Maryland has five men on death row but the new legislation allows the governor to commute their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole. MDs execution took place in 2005.

Death sentences have declined by 75 percent and executions by 60 percent nationally since the 1990s.

Connecticut abolished the death penalty last year. Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York also have outlawed it in recent years.